1. Field:
The invention relates to electronic commerce, and more particularly to an automated bid proxy for participating in online auctions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Online auctions provide a convenient medium for sale and resale of goods and services, and have grown rapidly in popularity. As popularity has grown, auction participants have become savvier about the competitive bidding process. For example, the technique of “sniping” has emerged, in which a participant places a single, last-minute (or last-second) bid. This technique aims to achieve tactical advantage by avoiding price run-ups that might result from numerous bidders who constantly seek to outbid one another.
In order to facilitate sniping, online services such as esnipe.com provide automated bid proxies that, automatically and under the control of a computer, place bids on behalf of users who wish to employ the technique of sniping. In practice, users have found that it is advantageous to use such automated bid proxies. This has led both to increasing demand for online services such as esnipe.com and to increasing load on the automated bid proxies provided by such online services.
Another development in the field of online auctions relates to a business practice of eBay, Inc. and its subsidiaries (hereinafter “EBAY®,” which is a registered trademark of eBay, Inc.), the leading online auction venue in the United States. This business practice tends to arrange the end times of numerous auctions so that they coincide. This coincident finish of numerous auctions can place tremendous load on an automated bid proxy that is attempting to place last-second bids in the auctions.
Unfortunately, the popularity of automated bid proxies combined with the aforementioned business practice of EBAY® can cause the load on an automated bid proxy to spike in the seconds leading up to the coincident close of auctions. Indeed, in these circumstances the automated bid proxy may become overloaded, which may cause some bids to be placed too late such as after the end of an auction.
There remains a need for an automated bid proxy that can predict and compensate for changes in load.